“Lionel’s Dub”

London’s Dwayne Parris-Robinson, known behind the decks as Parris, first turned up in 2014 on the iconic British electronic label Tempa, one of the imprints that originally brought dubstep into the world. His nail-biter of a debut single, “Caught”—a collaboration with grime producer Wen—was egged on by energy-stoking shouts and strafed with cymbals, yet it never fully kicked into gear. That was by design: By holding back, the two producers only ratcheted up the tension.

Since then, Parris has aligned himself squarely within a UK club movement that privileges long, linear structures, corkscrewing shapes, and counterintuitive moves. But the first track off his forthcoming 2 Vultures EP, for the Trilogy Tapes, is a different kind of curveball. Rather than carving a middle path between techno and bass music, like most of Parris’ music does, “Lionel’s Dub” is a gravelly warm-up cut disguised as clanging ambient dub. It opens with tarnished bell tones over a swirling loop that might be roosting birds (or a pitched-down bong rip); a slow-moving bassline and echoing snares evoke classic Jamaican sounds. But despite the vintage sonics of his bass and drums, Parris is clearly less interested in turning out a facsimile of old-school reggae than he is in harnessing those energies to fuel a dancefloor. Using a scratchy boom-tick pattern, he sculpts a thudding approximation of slow-motion techno. The results are woozy and driving all at once—a foggy head-nodder that practically compels dancers’ feet into action.